Carolyn Light Bell brings suicide out of the hidden shadows and into the light, illuminating how to speak to the bereaved, how to emerge from the hollow fears of emptiness and into the courage of understanding. She examines how new ways of being can emerge from the horror of egregious loss. Carolyn Light Bell’s collection of poems were begun from the moment her son, Joshua, was born, 47 years ago, an extraordinary child, and throughout his life. This collection includes poems written through the last three years following Joshua’s death, as Light Bell and her family learn to cope through support of professionals, friends and activity. Her poems are filled with suffering borne of loss; yet she documents with humor and grace her ideas on how to continue operating with hope, compassion and love.

Carolyn Light Bell is a photographer, writer and educator. Published works include Delivery, a collection of poetry; I Heard a Fish Cry, a collection of short stories; Love’s Little Triumphs, a collection of short stories; Eleanor and the Little Turtle and Lala and Her Friends, bilingual children’s books. She was the chief editor of Pieces of Work, 36 Sermons, Conversations, Stories and Mystical Musings, by Rabbi Sim Glaser, and the editor of A Collection of Meditations. The Joshua Poems was published in 2023.

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In Ceremonies for No Repair, Paula Cisewski challenges us to examine our grief for the depths of our care. Set in the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, this hybrid of poetry, prose, and images is a collage of personal and universal sorrows: a surprise divorce, an uprising, a mother’s death in quarantine. Less narrative than aggregate, it is a book about staying present and moving both with and through. It is an accrual of small moments and actions that, together, gesture toward hope.

Paula Cisewski is a poet, editor, artist, educator, and curator. She is also the author of The Becoming Game (Hanging Loose Press, 2025), Quitter (Diode Editions Book Prize winner), The Threatened Everything, Ghost Fargo (Nightboat Poetry Prize winner, selected by Franz Wright), Upon Arrival, and several chapbooks. She has been awarded fellowships and residencies from organizations including the Jerome Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Oberholtzer Foundation, and Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts. Visit her website, www.paulacisewski.com, for more.

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